The Story of Tilikum and the Challenges of Captive Orcas

Did you ever rescue an animal from the street that you chose to keep as your pet?

My father served in the Air Force, and I spent my childhood traveling the globe. We resided in Buenos Aires, Argentina, when I was four years old. My father worked as a meteorologist for an aircraft squadron stationed there. It was a top-secret program at the time, and there was no major base with American schools and housing, unlike later places we'd live. Because Americans were solely there to advise the Argentine government, we rented an Argentine home, and my older brother and I attended an upper-class Argentine school.

a street animal to be rescued

 Because there were so few of us, it was essentially a one-room school. Up until eighth grade, I was the youngest in a classroom of around 35 students. In the mornings, we had an Argentine teacher, who taught us in Spanish and forbade us from speaking English. Then, in the afternoon, we had a British teacher who spoke no Spanish and did everything in English. They gave you work and when you finished it, they gave you more. Every day, we took the same bus to and from school.

 I was getting off the bus one day when I noticed a group of huge eighth-graders forming a circle around whatever they were laughing and hollering over. Someone pushed their way through the mob, and I noticed they were holding a kitten by the tail and swinging it around over their heads. My brother subsequently said that he was waiting for me to get off the bus and was watching for me, so when I saw what was going on, he was gazing at me.

 He claimed I was startled, became white in the face, and then bolted. I slammed into the cluster of youngsters with such force that the boy holding the cat was knocked to the ground. As soon as the kitten and boy touched down, I grabbed the cat and dashed through the mob as fast as my little legs could carry me. I placed the kitten into the front of my jacket, zipped it up, and talked to it the entire way home, assuring it that everything was well now. I told him he was safe because I had him. He started purring at one point. I ran till I was certain there was no one behind me.

 I got most of the way home before realizing that bringing home a stray cat would not go over well with my mother. So I went to work attempting to come up with a strategy to persuade my mum to let me keep the cat. I considered bringing up her love of cats. I considered appealing to her pity. Finally, I came up with what I thought was a very fantastic concept. I was confident that it would work, so I walked the rest of the way home with the cat and me purring together.

 I stated that we had to retain the kitten since he spoke English: he said meow when I stepped in and told my mum what I had done and asked if I may keep it. 

 Mother didn't laugh or agree; all she said was that I needed to wait until my father got home before they decided what to do about the cat. So I waited, with the fate of my four-year-old universe on the line. In the meantime, I let the cat out of my jacket and sent him exploring. 

 Finally, tick tock, tick tock! When my father enters my room, he remarks, So the cat speaks English, huh? It's hidden behind the refrigerator and refuses to come out. Come over and try if you can persuade it to leave. 

 I went into the kitchen, sat down, and resumed my conversation with him, assuring him that he was secure, that I was present, and that everything was fine. He didn't take long to emerge from his hiding location and sit on my lap.

 They agreed to let me keep him

 We named him Mishey, which means cat in Spanish, therefore we dubbed the Cat Cat. He was one of the most wonderful dogs I'd ever owned. He'd use his paws to capture flies. He was intelligent and charming, and I miss him every day.

Source: Newspaper